Toonbots message board: Hey, Michael?

Michael Mon Jan 6 16:27:18 2003 Re: Hey, Michael? > I'm going to be visiting a friend in Bloomington this week. Do you think > your wife would mind terribly if I came to your house and made faces into > your basement windows? How about if I painted gigantic murals of Mao and > the Dot on your fences and/or walls? And would either of you have much of > a problem with my friend and me skulking about the property taking > pictures to post on a disturbingly out-of-touch-with-reality Toonbots > fansite? Just checking. Oh, God. Actually -- my wife knows absolutely nothing about my metacartooning alter ego. I'm following BoxJam's suggestion on this, and I quote: "Never tell your wife about your cartooning." I'm pretty sure there's a story there. THAT SAID my wife didn't know anything about my spamfighting alter ego either until I suddenly started having mysterious friends she never heard about, like the guy who picked up our video camera with our house keys in it which we left in the rental car in Manhattan and made a copy of our house key so we could get into the house when we returned from Budapest in 2001. Sure, Napoleon. Come on by. And if you can paint a gigantic mural of Mao on our chainlink fence, I'd like to see it. ... Toonbots fansite? That's ... kind of scary.

Michael Mon Jan 6 16:50:16 2003 Re: Hey, Michael? > Sure, Napoleon. Come on by. And in fact, give me a little warning and you can have supper. Lentil soup and/or meatloaf tonight. (Certainly lentil soup because we have to use up the last bits of my grandmother's gargantuan Christmas ham which we thawed yesterday.) Later in the week, probably chili. Heck, I might even bake cookies. You're too late for the baklava, though. Part of my wife's Christmas present was all the baklava she could eat. I really didn't know *anybody* could eat that much baklava... Hmm. Maybe I'll make baklava again. I coincidentally happen to have bought all the ingredients again.

Napenguin Mon Jan 6 17:17:37 2003 Re: Hey, Michael? > Heck, I might even bake cookies. Cookies in the shapes of dead Communists? I'll have to run it by my hosty friend to see when we might pop over there to terrorize your innocent family -- heck, or even *if* we might, he keeps wanting to "plan" things down to the details and enough plans would leave no time for such a field trip -- but hey, any opportunity to cheerfully take advantage of offered hospitality.

Michael Mon Jan 6 17:35:27 2003 Re: Hey, Michael? > Cookies in the shapes of dead Communists? Perfectly ordinary chocolate chip ones. Or as my son says, "Chloclit"

mouse Mon Jan 6 19:15:02 2003 Re: Hey, Michael? > Perfectly ordinary chocolate chip ones. Or as my son says, > "Chloclit" you could always make faces with careful arrangement of the chips. i would go for the baklava, myself...

Darnn Sun Jan 12 14:53:45 2003 Re: Hey, Michael? > you could always make faces with careful arrangement of the chips. i would > go for the baklava, myself... TOES

Emsworth Mon Jan 13 09:50:20 2003 Re: Hey, Michael? > TOES ::wolverines consume TOES and baklava:: By the way, Michael never did get back to Napoleon and friend, so the visit was aborted. Jerk.

Michael Fri Jan 17 21:46:44 2003 Re: Hey, Michael? > ::wolverines consume TOES and baklava:: > By the way, Michael never did get back to Napoleon and friend, so the > visit was aborted. Jerk. I told her here she was welcome, and I sent her an email with contact info *and* directions on how to find the house, not to mention my contact info is also on my site, not to mention in the whois for vivtek.com. So in this matter, anyway, I ain't the jerk.

Emsworth Sat Jan 18 12:29:02 2003 Re: Hey, Michael? Apparently she was waiting for you to give an approximate time for when it would be best to stop by. Miscommunication, then, or an e-mail was lost somewhere. Pity. I told her that the least she should have done was leave cryptic threatening notes in your mailbox, but would she listen?

Michael Sun Jan 19 11:17:25 2003 Re: Hey, Michael? > Apparently she was waiting for you to give an approximate time for when it > would be best to stop by. Miscommunication, then, or an e-mail was lost > somewhere. Pity. I told her that the least she should have done was leave > cryptic threatening notes in your mailbox, but would she listen? Oy. Young people. She was the one with the constrained schedule. I am at home, working and/or with my family, 24/7 or pretty close to that. That's why I told *her* to give *me* some warning when she could come by. Sheesh. Napoleon, dear, when you read this, I expect an autodefenestration.

Napenguin Sun Jan 19 19:38:01 2003 Re: Hey, Michael? > Oy. Young people. She was the one with the constrained schedule. I am at > home, working and/or with my family, 24/7 or pretty close to that. That's > why I told *her* to give *me* some warning when she could come by. > Sheesh. Napoleon, dear, when you read this, I expect an > autodefenestration. Yes, how dare I attempt to be polite by asking *you* when it would be convenient for *you* to have us drop by (whether or not the email actually made it there, and if it didn't then it's the fault of the pixies, says I). I shall go punish myself for this at once. :P I'm going to be spending at least part of my spring break out there, so that'll give me a chance to correct my behavior and fall upon your house demanding cookies and such.

Michael Sun Jan 19 21:59:59 2003 Re: Hey, Michael? > Yes, how dare I attempt to be polite by asking *you* when it would be > convenient for *you* to have us drop by (whether or not the email actually > made it there, and if it didn't then it's the fault of the pixies, says > I). I shall go punish myself for this at once. :P Goldurn pixies. I didn't see any such email. Wouldn't have been an issue if Emsworth hadn't called me a jerk for it. It also doesn't help that I hear, from my family, a *lot*, "we're going to come visit and see your kids" and then they don't show up. It's kind of a sore spot. They see nothing at all difficult for us to drive two hours up there, but my God, to expect them to drive so much farther to get down here! Although my dad is getting better about it. My mother, though, hasn't been down to Bloomington in two years, I believe. My *wife's* mother visits us more often. From Budapest. > I'm going to be spending at least part of my spring break out there, so > that'll give me a chance to correct my behavior and fall upon your house > demanding cookies and such. See that you do. In the meantime, defenestrate Emsworth. And Tirdun, too, because let's face it, there just hasn't been enough defenestration around here lately.

Emsworth Mon Jan 20 01:26:00 2003 Re: Hey, Michael? >Wouldn't have been an issue if Emsworth hadn't called me a jerk for it. Humble apologies. Especially since there are so many other things you could be called a jerk for.

Michael Sat Jan 25 23:07:12 2003 Re: Hey, Michael? > Humble apologies. Especially since there are so many other things you > could be called a jerk for. Exactly. Ones I am prepared to be called a jerk for.

Napenguin Mon Jan 6 17:08:41 2003 Re: Hey, Michael? > And if you can paint a gigantic mural of Mao > on our chainlink fence, I'd like to see it. Perhaps I should do something with yarn. Sort of the thing they do at elementary schools when they spell out things like 'SAY NO TO DRUGS' in tied-up ribbon on chainlink during DARE week.

mouse Mon Jan 6 19:04:18 2003 Re: Hey, Michael? > Perhaps I should do something with yarn. Sort of the thing they do at > elementary schools when they spell out things like 'SAY NO TO DRUGS' in > tied-up ribbon on chainlink during DARE week. ooo - i think mao would work out nicely rendered in red yarn. and of course, you could practice doing the bot. dot might be a little harder.

mouse Mon Jan 6 19:33:42 2003 Re: Hey, Michael? > Oh, God. > Actually -- my wife knows absolutely nothing about my metacartooning alter > ego. I'm following BoxJam's suggestion on this, and I quote: "Never > tell your wife about your cartooning." I'm pretty sure there's a > story there. i think you're safer than boxer - your wife has never appeared in toonbots (unless dot is some sort of cunning parody). i think he's just trying to preserve plausible deniability, for the day when mrs. b comes across the strip. either that, or he hates the suggestions for new strips she gives him. > THAT SAID my wife didn't know anything about my spamfighting alter ego > either until I suddenly started having mysterious friends she never heard > about, like the guy who picked up our video camera with our house keys in > it which we left in the rental car in Manhattan and made a copy of our > house key so we could get into the house when we returned from Budapest in > 2001. your vacation movies must be even stranger than most...(what's that thing in the middle of the picture? oh, that's just our house keys - but you can see the chrysler building there behind them, on the right - well, the top part, anyway....) i am tempted to ask further about this character who collects items from rental cars, and why he didn't just return the keys and camera to you....but perhaps, best not. > Sure, Napoleon. Come on by. And if you can paint a gigantic mural of Mao > on our chainlink fence, I'd like to see it. better explain the toon to your wife first, though - those off-the-cuff explanations about why some strange woman is suddenly stalking you can get pretty ugly. > ... Toonbots fansite? That's ... kind of scary. you will, of course, be posting the url? not that we want to frighten michael too much by forming some kind of cult....

Michael Mon Jan 6 21:06:57 2003 Re: Hey, Michael? > i am tempted to ask further about this character who > collects items from rental cars, and why he didn't just return the keys > and camera to you....but perhaps, best not. That was the summer we took the QE2 en route to Budapest. Understandably, I didn't want to pay for my friend to come to Budapest, so instead he copied the house key and mailed it to me in Budapest, and mailed the rest of the swag to me in Bloomington, where I picked it all up when we got back. The vacation videos were really boring for that trip, because -- maybe you missed this part -- I forgot the video camera in the rental car. When we embarked at the port, that is. We didn't go *to* Manhattan, just *through* it. > you will, of course, be posting the url? not that we want to frighten > michael too much by forming some kind of cult.... Is a cult better than a Jihad? I'm thinking maybe a cult is a step up.

Chris Mon Jan 6 21:32:38 2003 Re: Hey, Michael? > Is a cult better than a Jihad? I'm thinking maybe a cult is a step up. Perhaps in theory, but in practical purposes, probably not. Look at those other cults out there... Heaven's Gate, those freaks at Jonestown, Scientology... we don't need to be associated with THEM. They don't even have their own wolverines.

Pack of Wolverines Tue Jan 7 12:09:41 2003 Re: Hey, Michael? > Perhaps in theory, but in practical purposes, probably not. Look at those > other cults out there... Heaven's Gate, those freaks at Jonestown, > Scientology... we don't need to be associated with THEM. > They don't even have their own wolverines. ::wolverines bow gracefully and proceed to consume Scientologists::

Michael Tue Jan 7 12:23:05 2003 Re: Hey, Michael? > ::wolverines bow gracefully and proceed to consume Scientologists:: Boy, can't wait until Google caches *this* page.